


Little Victories

by thesometimeswarrior



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Compliant, Character Study, Episode: s05e25 Legs From Here To Homeworld, Family, Fear, Ficlet, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-28
Updated: 2018-08-28
Packaged: 2019-07-03 19:38:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15825597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesometimeswarrior/pseuds/thesometimeswarrior
Summary: You haven’t addressed the Diamonds, haven’t evenlookedat either of them directly since the battle. Youcan’t. (How much of that, you wonder, is a remnant of an old grudge? How much is your programming? Their presence stirs something deep in your Gem that you have spentso longfighting…)Your shoulders tense and your face flushes as Steven asks Yellow Diamond: "Where’re Yellow Pearl and Blue Pearl?"Some of Pearl's battles are fought on minuscule fronts.





	Little Victories

It’s strange, this, standing exactly where you stood so many years ago, when you were a different Gem, but this time with _Steven_ to your right wearing Pink’s pants. (They were always his, and he was always hers, always _her_ —but it’s been so long since you’ve thought of him in those terms). You’re both flanked on either side by a different Diamond. 

The Diamonds. You haven’t addressed them, haven’t even _looked_ at either of them directly since the battle. You _can’t_. (How much of that, you wonder, is a remnant of an old grudge for the things they made Pink and then Rose and then even you yourself feel? How much is your programming? The decorum you were built with to never address anyone other than your owner, unless instructed to or addressed first. Millennia of work—not to mention Rose’s desires—have enabled you to more or less overcome this…but these are _Diamonds._ In their true forms. Their presence stirs something deep in your Gem that you have spent _so long_ fighting…)

“Can I ask you something?” Steven says, craning his neck toward Yellow Diamond, as you speed toward Homeworld.

(Your shoulders tense.)

“What.” Yellow responds in the same dismissive tone she always used when speaking to Pink.

“Where’re Yellow Pearl and Blue Pearl?” (You feel your face flush as you stare intently at the screen in front of you.) Steven continues: “When we were at the Human Zoo, they were with you, and I—”

“You were at your Zoo?” Blue Diamond interrupts. “Recently?”

“Yeah.” Steven smiles as he turns toward her, willing to be so amicable and embracing in a way that is hard for you to understand, even knowing him as you do. “You took my dad there a couple months ago, remember? After you found him by Pink Diamond’s Palanquin? We came to rescue him!”

“Stars.” She buries her face in her hand. “If you saw _us_ , and Yellow’s Pearl, you must have heard Yellow tell me to shatter the Rose Quartzes…”

He nods. “It’s okay, though—you didn’t know. And you didn't do it.”

( _It isn’t okay_ , you think.)

(You say nothing.)

“To _answer_ your question,” Yellow Diamond says, an edge to her voice, as though, perhaps, she agrees with you but prefers to bury the natural implications of that truth in anger rather than deal with them. “We came to Earth to retrieve a dangerous geo-weapon. And given that we knew that you, by which I mean _Rose Quartz_ , somehow survived, we anticipated potential resistance. Obviously, we were right.”

“Yeah, but—”

“One doesn’t knowingly bring a _Pearl_ into battle!” she continues. “It would only be a liability! Pearls can’t _fight_!”

You tense more, flush more deeply, feel Steven’s eyes on you. He’s waiting, you know, for you to speak, assert yourself in the face of these awful assumptions and generalizations, like you did with Peridot. And he’s never seen you dumbstruck and passive like this. You have always been an _agent_ to him, have somehow managed to make him think you were strong, capable, competent—even when you didn’t feel it. He’s had that—had _you_ —to cling to, to give _him_ strength. 

Where you’re going, and toward _whom_ , he’s going to need all the strength he can get; you refuse to let him down now, to rob him of even an ounce of what you can provide him, no matter what it does to you.

So, inhaling deeply, fighting the old instinct raging in your Gem, you turn around, look up, and clear your throat. 

It’s all you can manage. But it’s enough, because Yellow Diamond looks down and makes eye-contact. You will yourself to remain resolute. After an instant, something shifts in Yellow’s features, then flashes—a realization, perhaps. Another flash, this time of anger, and then…could it possibly be _embarrassment_?

Finally, she looks away, moving her eyes to stare ahead. “That is, _most_ Pearls _don’t_ fight. Mine doesn’t at least.”

Only after this admission do you return to your post, smirking to yourself as subtly as you can. Nothing really has changed. But you see Steven smiling at you in your peripheral vision, and for now, that’s victory enough.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! I love comments!


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